Do not be fooled by the title. Don’t believe for one second that I have my life all sorted out and happy and good just from the title of today’s blog. I would like to inform you all that my life is still a mess of confusion and irregularities – I think that’s all life is meant to be. However, I’ve realised that by trying to establish a morning and evening routine, I’ve taken a step in the right direction to better my life and to help me start my day, as well as calm down and relax for some time in the evening.
There are many different factors that affect my routines, and these usually include whether I’m at work, what time my family wakes up, and whether we are in quarantine (if we can even remember a time before).
As the morning comes first, I think it’s only fitting to start with my morning routine.
On a work day, I set my alarm between half six and seven, but I usually wake up earlier (because I do this thing where I subconsciously don’t want to wake my sisters up with my alarm – because I’m nice like that – and so I usually wake up half an hour before my alarm and lay in bed resting until just before my alarm). Once I’m awake, I drag myself out of bed and have a quick wash – as quietly as possibly – before slipping into my yoga gear.
Usually, once my yoga clothes are on – which are just regular workout clothes – I’m pretty much fully awake. That’s when I make my way downstairs with my yoga mat and do either a short eleven minute routine or a longer twenty minute routine (it all really depends how I feel when I wake up. The shorter routine tends to stretch out my muscles which is good at the moment as the physical aspect of what I do at work is pushing me at the moment – mostly because I’ve had about eight weeks off. I reserve the longer routine for days I am feeling energetic and for when I wake up earlier and want to push myself.
Once I’ve done my yoga, I go back upstairs to get ready and changed into my work uniform. This can take anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour. It usually all depends on whether I showered the night before and how much of an effort I want to make.
After getting ready for work, I make my way back downstairs to eat breakfast. At the moment I’ve been eating unhealthy cereal – which tastes really good – and is helping me gain some weight (Yay! I’ve been trying for so long to put more weight on). Just before I grab my breakfast, however, I make a coffee and let it sit so I don’t have to wait a long time for it to cool.
Finally, I drink up my coffee – make my lunch if I didn’t the night before, and then hop in the car to work.
I tend to find work mornings are very rushed, which I think is the case for everyone. When I’m not working, my mornings are a lot calmer and a lot more fun. I will wake up between seven and eight, have a wash, and then head downstairs.
On these days, especially if I’m not feeling particularly good, I sit down and have a cuddle with one of my dogs, usually Nora, and listen to my favourite song at the moment (I mentioned it in my last blog, it’s currently Monsters by All Time Low). After listening to this song, I have to wait until my sisters are up and I take this moment to have breakfast and to browse through Tik Tok and Instagram.
Then, when they finally wake up, I go and do my yoga. On the days I don’t have work, I tend to push myself and do my longer twenty minute routine, however sometimes I do my eleven minute routine if I have a lot to do that day.
Once my yoga is complete, I then get dressed and ready while drinking my coffee (which I let cool while I do my yoga). Sometimes, if C has the day off as well and if he’s up, I will also call him while I get ready. We don’t really chat as much in the mornings as we do in the evenings, or afternoons, but we just sort of do our own things in each other’s company which is just as nice.
After this, I head downstairs and start my day. Sometimes I will play Sims 4 for a few hours, or studying my driving theory for a couple hours (today it meant planning and writing this blog because I had forgotten it was blog week).
That’s when the day happens, and then we get to the evening.
My evening routines don’t really change depending on whether I have work or not. If I do have work the next day, I’ll just start it earlier. However, my routine does differ depending on whether we are quarantined. Before quarantine, I didn’t have an evening routine. I used to rush everything and then have trouble falling asleep. This was because I used to see C in the evenings and would try to spend as much time with him as possible.
However, now that we’re quarantined, and I can’t see C, I’ve spent some time trying to sort out an evening routine which probably won’t stick when everything goes back to normal (especially because I won’t want to leave C’s side).
At the moment, I tend to do something to better my mental health in the evenings, by taking some time to myself. This can include anything from a short yoga routine, stretching, watching a YouTube video, or (more realistically) scrolling through Tik Tok for about an hour. When it starts to approach ten – or half nine on a work night – I say goodnight to my family and head upstairs.
This is when it’s ‘teeth time’ (which I used once as a joke when texting C, but has now become the official name of the time I dedicate to brushing my teeth). While I brush my teeth and do my final wash, I pop on a song and have a little bit of a dance. As silly as it sounds, it helps me feel a little more positive, especially on a day when I’m struggling with feeling happy.
It takes between one or two songs for me to wrap up my wash and head up to bed. This is when I have my goodnight call with C. I like to check up on him and how his day has been. I usually take some time to scroll through Pinterest and build up my cute little boards before I say my final goodnight and fall asleep, ready to repeat it all the next day.
Do you have a morning and evening routine?
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog today, if you have. I’m not sure if it was something you are all interested in, but I had a good time writing it. Make sure you hang around for my next blog where I will hopefully be talking about my latest playlist. If you can’t wait that long, you can check out my last bog here: What I’ve Been Loving In My Life Lately.
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